First Full Day

Today was our first full day with Spencer. After our friends from Northcoast Greyhound left we had a quiet night surprising our parents with our new addition and finishing up with one more walk to get our "pack" together. I'm no Cesar Millan, but I can try. As time went on it got better by the minute. Getting him up the stairs was quite interesting. He's not quite used to stairs, ours aren't carpeted, and with his hips it was slow going. In the end he ended up getting carried upstairs. During our sleeping time we didn't have any problems and things went more smoothly than expected. Viking and Lily slept where they always do and Spencer slept on his bed in a new spot. He got up only once at night and it was at 1:30am. Once again we both ended up carrying down the stairs, he did his business, and then we headed back up to bed. Even though we slept well we were quite tired this morning when the alarm went off at 5:30am. While I was getting ready for work he was like velcro, following me everywhere. And after David left for work he whined. I can't believe he's already that attached to us. When it came time to go back upstairs to get ready for work he wanted to follow. At that point David was gone so I was on my own. Surprisingly after a few minutes he climbed up the stairs on his own. He stayed with me until I went back downstairs and he came down the stairs on his own once again.

His first trip in the car with me went well. He wanted to stand but finally settled and got comfortable. Once we got to work he started with some soft stool, but it progressively got better throughout the day. Everyone loved him at work and for the most part he did well. Again, he wanted to follow me everywhere and when I put him in the kennel he didn't care for it much. And anytime someone else was holding his leash and I left he whined and wanted to follow me. It's going to be interesting trying to get him on a potty schedule. We're not used to having to take the pups outside since they're litter trained. He's pretty good about letting us know but with his nerves he's having to go more often that he normally would.

You'll notice in pictures Spencer has a muzzle on. He is not mean. And he's the most docile guy. Just a sweetheart. He looked at the cats when he came in a just walked right on by not caring one bit. The muzzle is just a precaution during these early times to make sure we don't have any run ins. And believe it or not we're not so scared about Spencer attacking the other pets. If anything, Viking and Lily would go after him. We just want to keep things as settled as possible. Once time goes on he'll be able to have it off while inside. More than likely he'll always wear it outside. Greyhounds will see things out of the corner of their eyes and chase it as though it's prey. With Viking and Lily being so small he may see them in our large backyard as prey and attack unexpectedly. Once again, it's not that he's mean, but it's a trait that bred into them. Muzzles are almost like an extension to all greyhounds. They have them from such an early age and wear them almost nonstop. And if you go to a greyhound rescue function you'll see nearly all of the greyhounds have them on, especially in large groups. With this being said, we're still careful to give him enough time outside and while eating with the muzzle off.

Everything will take time but it is truly going better than expected.

FYI Spencer is a pretty large guy. At almost 80 lbs he could stand to gain about 10 more. We're pretty good about bulky pups up (see Lily =)) so I'm sure he'll be an even better looking boy as time goes on.